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Two major developments announced last month are signs the Lansing region is poised for business growth.

The construction of a Meijer market and hotel is coming to East Michigan Avenue, and a $555 million dairy processing operation is planned on 146 acres in St. Johns. Local officials say both will bring new residents and jobs to the region.

Are major restaurant chains paying attention?

Lansing area officials say restaurant companies look at everything from an area's population and demographics to a property's proximity to their competition and major interstates when they consider where to open a new location.

Others are open to finding potential franchisees with local ties and a willingness to hit the ground running.

Detroit-based Buddy's Pizza could find a home in Greater Lansing, and the region is in the running to become the first Michigan location of a Cincinnati-based sports restaurant known for more than chicken wings and big-screen televisions.

And a Sonic Drive-In?

Maybe, a company official said, if the right local franchisee comes forward to help make it happen.

Detroit pizza, and Cincinnati-based wings

The Ultimate Italian thin-crust pizza at the Buddy's Pizza in Novi is topped with Italian sausage, roasted red pepper and red onion. The company is planning to open a new location in the Lansing area this spring, a company official said.(Photo: Sylvia Rector Detroit Free Press)

Buddy’s Pizza established a name for itself in Detroit in 1946 when the eatery, which started with one location on the corner of Conant and Six Mile roads, began serving its square pizza.

It’s been dubbed "The Original Detroit Style Square Pizza,” and the eatery also serves everything from made-from-scratch soups, and Antipasto salad, to pastas, burgers and sandwiches.

Today the company has 12 locationslargely in and around Detroit, with a new restaurant opening in the Detroit Zoo next month.

Buddy's management has done more than notice the Lansing market. They've visited.

“We’re open to it,” Buddy’s Brand Director Jim Balis said last week.

Balis said company officials visited three potential locations for a new restaurant in and around Lansing recently, including sites in neighboring communities.

They look at an area’s demographics before deciding it’s right for a new location, Balis said. A good mix of incomes, along with both a daytime and evening customer base is important to have, he said.

They favor opening a full-service restaurant on the “periphery” of Lansing, Balis said, and a limited service model of the restaurant that focuses on to-go orders near the campus of Michigan State University.

“We love the fact that the university is there,” Balis said. “We’re getting ever closer. We’re just trying to find the right fit for the brand. We get calls sometimes on a daily basis about potential locations.”

The company now operates 20 restaurants, all within the state. Most are located in and around Detroit, and Devin Burns, the company's director of marketing, said that's not likely to change soon.

She said the company's "current growth plans continue to be in the Metro Detroit area, specifically Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne County."

"Though we hope our expansion plans will include the greater Lansing area in the 'not so distant' future, we have no plans at this time," Burns said in an email last week.

But Cincinnati-based Buffalo Wings & Rings, a restaurant chain that operates 60 locations in the U.S. and another 20 around the world, is taking a serious look at the Lansing area, said the company's Chief Development Officer Philip Schram.

A photo of the interior of Buffalo Wings & Rings, a Cincinnati-based sports restaurant. A company official said the chain is looking at the Lansing area for its first Michigan location.(Photo: Photo by Brian Rineair)

It's an ideal market for the restaurant's first Michigan location, he said. The company is also looking at a "subsection" of the Detroit area, Schram said, and "one or the other" will house the chain's first Michigan restaurant.

"Going into Michigan seems to be the natural place to continue to grow," Schram said. "Lansing is the right size and has the right population base. We are interested in the fact that it's the state capitol."

Schram said the "sports restaurant" offers an "elevated food and customer service" experience that caters to families, rather than college students. Its locations offer 45 big screen televisions for watching sporting events, and a full menu.

"All the food is made fresh, never frozen," Schram said. "We are an elevated sports restaurant that caters to families."

Schram said Buffalo Wings & Rings is actively seeking a viable franchisee interested in opening a location in the "suburbs" of the Lansing area. Once the company has secured one, he said it can take two years to secure a property and build a restaurant.

Buffalo Wings & Rings, a Cincinnati-based sports restaurant. A company official said the chain is looking at the Lansing area for its first Michigan location.(Photo: Photo courtesy of Buffalo Wings & Rings)

Smaller restaurant companies are interested in the Lansing area, too.

Klavon’s Pizzeria & Pub, which opened its first restaurant on Old McDevitt Avenue in Vandercook Lake just outside Jackson 11 years ago, plans to open its third location in Mason early next year.

In May Klavon's Director of Operations Andrea LaFever said the new location was the company's "first step into the greater Lansing area." The company has plans to open more stores, she said.

What about SONIC? Others?

SONIC restaurants have locations in 44 states, 19 of which are in Michigan.(Photo: Courtesy)

SONIC restaurants have locations in 44 states, 19 of which are in Michigan.

The Lansing area has none, and Johnny Jones, SONIC’s vice president of development and construction, said SONIC has no “confirmed plans” to open a restaurant in Lansing.

But that isn’t because the company doesn’t favor the Lansing market, he said.

“We think Lansing would make a great market for SONIC,” Jones said in an email.

According to the company website, 90% of its restaurants are franchised.

Before SONIC enters a new market, Jones said the company first looks to secure “a strong franchisee.”

“We are always looking for passionate and experienced entrepreneurs interested in opening up a SONIC franchise in their community, and much of our growth into specific communities is driven by those franchisees,” Jones said. “Once we have a strong franchisee in place, we help that franchisee identify the ideal location for a new SONIC Drive-In.”

Jones said the ideal franchisee “is a people person and someone deeply involved in their local community.”

In the last year Meridian Township Economic Development Director Chris Buck said he knows of one potential SONIC franchisee who toured a few properties in the township.

And Delta Township Supervisor Ken Fletcher said "at one point" a Sonic franchisee looked at locations off Saginaw in Delta Township, near Marketplace Boulevard.

Many national restaurant chains approach municipalities through a commercial realtor, Buck said, relying on them to scout good locations and, sometimes, to reach out to officials to discuss the availability of properties.

The Meridian Mall remains "one of the best places" in the township for a fast-food franchise, Buck said.

With 42,000 residents and a vibrant retail presence, Buck said Meridian Township has something to offer a perspective restaurant owner, and residents would love to see more locally-owned, small eateries come to the area.

"These are the types of places they love," Buck said.

Lansing's Economic Planning and Development Director Brian McGrain said while national restaurant chains usually have their own staff dedicated to selecting new sites, "I would say the city is willing to talk to anybody looking to locate in the Lansing area."

In Delta Township, traffic at mid-Michigan's first Chick-fil-A was non-stop when the restaurant opened on Saginaw Highway in October of 2016. Staff gave away 1,500 free sandwiches in two hours to celebrate the opening. Six months later the company opened a second restaurant in Meridian Township.

Delta Township Economic Development Coordinator Ed Reed said local officials knew the company was looking for a Lansing-area site before they committed to the property on Saginaw Highway.

Restaurant chains consider everything from traffic counts on a street to their potential proximity to competitors when they look at an area, Reed said, and township staff can help them determine a property's availability.

"Lots of factors go into making those decisions," Reed said, but at the end of the day basic economics, including an area's demographics and the median income, can win out.

"A lot of businesses now, if they're looking at Delta they want to be close to the highway intersection," Reed said.

Within the last year three new commercial builds have cropped up on Saginaw Highway, just off Interstate 96 in Delta — where a newly-built Outback Steakhouse and Starbucks have opened, and a Hilton Garden Inn hotel is under construction.

Sometimes interested parties are looking at existing buildings, but many want to build their own, Fletcher said.

What restaurants are looking for

Bob Trezise, president and CEO of the Lansing Economic Area Partnership, said the Lansing region is positioned to attract new restaurants.

The 2017 census shows the Lansing area's population is on the rise, Trezise said.

At LEAP, an economic development organization that promotes and helps to further economic vitality in Ingham, Clinton and Eaton counties, there’s a focus on recruiting big business to the region, Trezise said.

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Klavon's Pizzeria & Pub will host a three-day job fair this month at its third location taking shape on West Kipp Road.(Photo: Rachel Greco/Lansing State Journal)

It's "unusual," he said, to hear directly from a restaurant company, although developers looking to build in the region sometimes connect one looking to lease space with them with LEAP officials.

Still, in the last week he said two popular restaurant companies have reached out to the organization, looking for information about the Lansing area.

Trezise declined to name either Friday. He said those conversations are kept confidential.

Restaurant companies are interested in demographics and economic growth, Trezise said, but they want more than data.

“My experience with these guys is that it’s more the story they want about the economic development across the region,” he said. “They want to know whether our population is going up and whether our per capita income is going up.”

Rising numbers in both equal more customers with money to spend, Trezise said.

"We're becoming wealthier and bigger, and that is what restaurants are looking for," he said.